What language you speak?

English and Vietnamese

 

Well... saying that one speaks a language means being able to communicate in it. If we want to be precise, I would say that I don't fully master even my native Spanish, since there are a lot of variations across the different Spanish-speaking countries and regions.

 

Depends on how hard I smash my fingers... Other than that English.

 

Native English speaker here. I did learn French for 3 years at school, and German for 2 years, but gave them both up as subjects when I was 14. I've never needed to know either language, but when I was in Spain I found that I could understand some of what was being said by the locals because I recognised particular French and German verbs and words, although they were spoken with a Spanish accent.

 

Many English speakers believe that by speaking the language that is now used internationally, they don't need to know any other. I think that knowing other languages immerses you in other cultures, and also makes you aware of your own language. English was the language that was most difficult for me and that I studied the most, because the others, having Latin roots, were much easier for me.

 

My German teacher, Dr Civitz knew 16 European languages. He could speak 9 and understand the other 7. He was a brilliant linguist, and I thought he was a good teacher as well. As you say, once you know the Latin root of any Latinate language you can pretty much work it out from there.

 

Being that I speak several languages (as I posted a while back in this thread) I have always said, thank god I didn't have to learn English as a second language!

OK, so you don't want to go back through this thread and see what kind of languages I speak, you just want to know? Ok, I speak Vulcan and Romulon.




LMAO!!!!

NO! I DON'T! I dont even know for sure how to spell Romulon... Maybe its Romulan...

But if I ever met someone that did speak either of these, or any other made up languages, I would laugh, and say, Why did you put time in learning a made up language? If you want to speak some obscure language, why not learn an indigenous language?!

I speak Japanese fluently, I am conversational in Tagalog, can read Chinese, as long as the grammar is not too complicated, or its not too idiomatic, I can understand enough Lakota to follow ceremony fairly well, I can struggle by in French, and there are numerous languages that I have played around with well enough, such as Ancient Greek, that I can go through and pick out a quote I want to use, such as I have done with Plato, and Aristotle.

And some of these languages might seem obscure. I always thought Tagalog was a bit obscure. It wasn't too long ago that I had to explain to people that it was a language of the Philippines whenever I mentioned it. But Tagalog has certainly entered into mainstream pop culture. It is used more and more in TV and movies. I was surprised to hear it in a couple of Marvel superhero movies. And Lakota---who is going to use that. Except that Lakota prayer songs are used in sweat lodges, peyote ceremonies, etc. by a lot of tribes. But you are hearing it more and more as well. Most people are familiar with Wakan Tanka, for Great Spirit, and the phrase, O Mitakuye Oyase, both of which are Lakota. I was amazed that I could understand every language used in the first few seasons of the series WestWorld. Surprisingly they used Japanese, Spanish (which I could understand because Tagalog has a lot of Spanish in it, thanks to Colonial influence), Tagalog, and Lakota! (Quite a bit different from the movie back in the 70's...)

And there is something lost in movies and so forth, if you are only reading the subtitles.

 

The main obstacle in English is the lack of consistency in its rules, so you have to learn on one hand how it is written and on the other how it is pronounced. It's like learning two languages in one. Compared to Spanish, you always know how to pronounce any word based on its spelling. But on the other hand, the system of verbs and conjugations is much more complicated in Spanish than in English.
So they are balanced so to speak.

 

There is another hurdle the unsuspecting English student has to learn as well. When an English speaker says something, it may well seem to have a clear meaning, but in many ways we use our language in disguised ways as well. For instance, take the following sentences.

1. "This is the Moscow Narodny Hotel, and you are welcome!"
2. "This is the Moscow Narodny Hotel, and you are welcome to it!"

On the surface they both seem to convey the same meaning, that of a welcoming message to guests at the hotel. However, although the first is a genuine welcome sentence in English. The second is an insult because it means that the owner doesn't want it, and you are welcome to take it away/destroy it, etc.

I know someone who went to Moscow and found the second sentence in her hotel room, written on a note on the dressing table. She found it quite humorous to think that some poor Russian translator had fallen foul of the English trap!

Another instance of this is with the word 'bollocks' which in Spanish is Cohones I believe. When used in English it is very important to notice what words are used in front of it in order to get the meaning. Please see the listing below.

1. 'Bollocks' = (Damn, No, Go away, Rubbish)
2. '(It's) The Bollocks' = ((It's) The very best there is)
3. 'It's (all) Bollocks' = (It's (all) lies)
4. 'The Dog's Bollocks' = (The very best there is)
5. 'The Donkey's Bollocks' = (The very best there is)
6. 'What a load of Bollocks' = (What a load of lies)

So you can see that the context the word is used in changes its meaning drastically.

When I did my course on Teaching English as a Foreign Language we were shown the following sentence and how its meaning changed according to where in the sentence the word 'only' was placed.

1. Henry admired his sister - (means exactly that, he admired his sister)
2. Only Henry admired his sister - (Henry was the only person who admired his sister)
3. Henry only admired his sister - (Henry didn't admire anyone else, just his sister)
4. Henry admired only his sister - (Henry didn't admire anyone's sister, only his)
5. Henry admired his only sister - (Henry admired the only sister he had)
6. Henry admired his sister only - (Henry didn't admire any of his other siblings or acquaintances but only his sister)

So you can see that not only the context of the word being spoken, but also the order of the words is very important in order to get the proper meaning over to anyone listening.

Best of luck! You'll need it!

 

Just English & Spanish -

 

Yes, although I find your last example quite similar in my native Spanish, what you’re saying is quite characteristic of English. Many times, native English speakers have told me that my sentence sounds wrong just for reversing the word order. In Spanish, it can happen that a certain order is preferred, due to usage and customs, but if you say it in reverse, even if it sounds a bit unusual, it will still be correct.
Ex: "la casa bonita/la bonita casa"(the pretty house)
In summary, Spanish is more flexible and permissive than English.

 

English is my native language and I am fluent in French, I am currently studying Arabic and is my favorite of all languages.

 

English but also a bit of Cornish (Kernewek)